Thursday, April 26, 2007

I've been inspecting people outside of Karazhan, and I have noticed that there appear to be three types of raiders. At least, three types when it comes to all-important question of how to socket your gear.

Type A: One Gem To Rule Them All

This person is fixated on one type of gem, and filled all their sockets with that type. They don't seem to care about socket bonuses at all. Classic examples are tanks who fill every gem slot with blue +stamina gems, or mages/warlocks who go for red +spell damage gems.

This type of player is occasionally seen on the WoW forums complaining that the sockets on gear are not the "correct" type.

Type B: Let's Match Colours

This person puts a pure blue gem in a blue socket, a pure red gem in a red socket, and a pure yellow gem in a yellow socket. They always make sure they have their socket bonuses.

Type C: Multi-colour Gems For The Win

This person uses a lot of multiple colored gems, getting lots of smaller bonuses. They'll still get their socket bonuses, but often get some effect from a socket colour not available on that piece of gear. For example, if there are blue/yellow sockets, they may go for red/blue and red/yellow gems.

---

I'm a Type B person myself. I like getting my socket bonuses, and there's usually one gem in each color that I like. Multi-colour just seems like too much work for me, and for some reason isn't as pleasing to my eye as matching a red gem to a red socket. For example, all my red/yellow/blue tanking sockets are +8 dodge/+8 defense/+12 stamina.

So what type of gem person are you?

Posted by
Rohan

12 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I started as a type B, but lately I'm turning into a type A.

It really depends on the gear you get and what gives you better results. A +crit (or +spi) bonus is (almost) worthless in a shadowpriest, so it's easier to bypass those in favor of gems that actually help you better (+sta [for pvp] and +dam for [for pve] ftw :P)

I'm a mix between Type A and Type C. I will pick two multi colored gems and use those two exclusively. For example for my tanking gear as a paladin I will use for yellow and blue slots the green +defense and +stamina gems, and for red sockets I use the +spell damage and +stamina gems. Also, if you get up to the epic gems like those dropped from Heroics, you need to use multi-color gems anyways, because at Epic quality, there are no single colors.

On my heal gear, definitely type C. Most of the healing gear bonuses are useful, so I like to get the socket bonuses, and I think that Royal Nightseye (+9 heal, 2 mana/5) are rockin'.

On my tank gear, I started off as a 8 dodge for red, 4 stam/6 defense for yellow, and 12 stam for blue kind of guy, but I'm starting to gravitate toward 12 stam all around and becoming a type A. The deficiency in HP for a paladin tank when compared with druids and warriors usually leads to spike damage deaths, so I'm trying to soften that blow as much as possible by starting to stack armor and HP. The socket bonuses on warrior tank gear usually end up being +hit and +strength anyway, so feh.

I'm generally a type B and C person... if you're choosing gear appropriate for your class and playstyle then the socket bonuses are usually worth having, but in the case of gear with three different socket colors, probably one of them doesn't show a clear advantage in going exclusively with the single color/bigger numbers, so I'll happily spilt that into two lesser numbers for stats I really like, while still being able to keep the socket bonus.

Type A with a dash of C. As a tank, there are very few cases where it's worth putting anything in a socket besides a 12 stam gem. There are a couple pieces where the socket bonuses are actually worth it, but those are few and far between.

As a priest I'm type A with a dash of type B. If the set bonus is actually worth it-+healing or spirit- then I go for, if it isn't, then I slap as many of those sweet +healing gems into my armor as possible. Who needs MP5 gems when you can use MP5 enchants. :)

My main is a elemental/resto shaman (I love healing, but if we have another healer, I'm equally useful as DPS lightning bolt spam), trying to get good +healing gear so people will take me seriously as a healer.

I'm pretty much type C at this point, I'm trying to fill up my gear with multi-color gems with +healing, int and mana/5, while not exclusively getting pure +healing boosts. Royal Shadow Draenite and Luminous Flame Spessarite FTW, most of my gear is exclusively made up of those two gems.

I <3 matching colors, it just feels *wrong* somehow not to. Matching bonuses on my gear generally gives me stats I want anyway (The three socketed items I have now give me +healing, int and spell crit as bonuses, which are definitely great things to have).

Though I can see myself doing the same thing on my lock too, that +spelldamage/stamina Glowing Shadow Draenite looks awesome to me.

I operate with hybrids, I basically try to use everything at my disposal. Whether It's hybrid gems or whatever. I also believe in never breaking the set bonus, sure the set bonus probably doesn't help when you want to focus on something specific. But I say, heck with breaking bonuses, you can always find the stat you need on a hybrid gem anyways.